Content
Content Audit
A practical UX and content strategy method for assessing content quality, relevance, and consistency across a product or website.
How to run a content audit to identify gaps, remove redundancy, and prioritise updates that improve usability and outcomes.
What it is
A glossaryContent AuditA content audit is the process of reviewing and evaluating all existing content to understand its quality, performance, relevance, and accuracy.Open glossary term is a UX and glossaryContent StrategyContent strategy defines how content is planned, created, managed, and maintained to meet both user needs and business goals.Open glossary term method used to evaluate all content in a product or website.
It involves reviewing text, images, videos, and other media for quality, accuracy, relevance, and glossaryAlignmentAlignment is a shared understanding of goals and priorities across teams and stakeholders, strong enough that people act consistently without checking first. It is not the same thing as everyone agreeing.Open glossary term with goals.
Audits identify gaps, redundancies, outdated content, and areas needing glossaryOptimisationOptimisation is the process of improving a product or journey to increase performance, usability, or conversion.Open glossary term.
The focus is on improving content effectiveness, glossaryClarityClarity is how easily users can understand what is happening and what they need to do.Open glossary term, and glossaryUsabilityUsability is how easy and efficient it is for users to complete tasks within a product. It focuses on clarity, simplicity, and reducing effort so users can achieve their goals without confusion or friction.Open glossary term.
The goal is to ensure content meets user needs and supports glossaryBusiness ObjectivesBusiness objectives are specific, measurable goals that an organisation aims to achieve over a defined period.Open glossary term.
A content audit turns content sprawl into a clear plan for improvement.
When to use it
Use this method when you need to assess and improve content.
It is most useful when:
It is less useful when:
Content audits are often used before redesigns, SEO work, or UX optimisation.
Key takeaway
Run a content audit before major content decisions so priorities are evidence-based.
How to run it
Set up properly
Be clear on the scope, the criteria you are assessing against, and how findings will be recorded before you look at a single page. An audit without criteria becomes a very long opinion.
Include every content type and source, including PDFs, emails, help articles and error messages. The content that fails users is rarely the content on the main pages.
Run the method
glossaryContent AuditA content audit is the process of reviewing and evaluating all existing content to understand its quality, performance, relevance, and accuracy.Open glossary term are systematic and evaluative. The discipline is in assessing everything the same way, which is also what makes them tedious and what makes them credible.
- Inventory the content first. You cannot audit what you have not counted, and the count itself is usually the first surprise.
- Evaluate each item against stated criteria (accuracy, glossaryClarityClarity is how easily users can understand what is happening and what they need to do.Open glossary term, relevance, tone, glossaryPerformancePerformance refers to how quickly and efficiently a system responds to user actions and processes tasks.Open glossary term), recording a judgement rather than a note.
- Identify gaps, redundancies and outdated material, keeping the three separate. They need different decisions and different owners.
- Categorise every item for action: keep, update, consolidate or delete. An audit that ends without a verdict per item has not finished.
- Document findings for glossaryStakeholderA stakeholder is any individual or group with an interest in a product, project, or outcome, including internal teams and external parties.Open glossary term in terms of risk and effort, not volume. Nobody acts on a spreadsheet of four thousand rows.
Focus on actionable glossaryInsightAn insight is a meaningful understanding that explains why something is happening and what it means.Open glossary term rather than cataloguing. The inventory is the input; the decisions are the deliverable.
Capture and make sense of it
The value comes from a clear picture of content health. After auditing, document:
- The findings that change what somebody should do next
- Updates prioritised by impact against effort
- A glossaryGovernanceGovernance defines the rules, processes, and structures that guide decision-making and ensure accountability within an organisation or system.Open glossary term plan, or the same problems return within a year
- A way to track progress, since audits are useless if repeated from scratch
Use this to improve glossaryContent StrategyContent strategy defines how content is planned, created, managed, and maintained to meet both user needs and business goals.Open glossary term and UX. The hardest part is not the audit but the deletion it recommends.
What to look for
Focus on:
Where it goes wrong
Most issues come from:
If findings aren’t acted on, the audit fails.
What you get from it
Done properly, this method gives you:
Key takeaway
It helps you create content that supports both users and business goals.
Get in touch
If this sounds like something you need, we can run a content audit and help you organise, optimise, and improve your product’s content effectively.
No guesswork. No assumptions. Just content that works for users.
FAQ
Common questions
A few practical answers to the questions that usually come up around this method.
What is a content audit in UX?
It is a method for evaluating all content to identify gaps, redundancies, and optimisation opportunities.
When should you run a content audit?
Before redesigns, major updates, or optimisation work.
What can you assess?
Pages, text, media, labels, help content, and more.
What does an audit tell you that a look around does not?
It ensures content meets user needs and business objectives.
Does a content audit improve UX?
Yes. Clear, relevant content enhances usability and engagement.
Quick take
If your content is messy, outdated, or inconsistent, a content audit shows you what’s working and what isn’t.
Related Services
Related Guides
